Nahum: Supplemental Notes 1 Klaus G. Schiessel © 2000 on the River of Gozan, and in the Cities of the Medes” {2 Kings 17:6}

NAHUM: SUPPLEMENTAL NOTES

SAR'GON (Sar'gon). The name of an Assyrian king mentioned only once in the Bible , and then merely to give the date to an important prophecy of Isaiah. The Assyrian form of the name is Sharrukin. Sargon was the successor of Shalmaneser V (see Shalmaneser) and the father of Sennacherib (see Sennacherib), and he ruled in Assyria 722-705 B.C. Abundant historical materials concerning his reign have come down to us. Remains of the walls that he built, colossal carved bulls covered with inscriptions, tools, palace utensils, and beautifully inscribed prisms have all been found in different parts of Assyria, and all bear their witness to his glory and success.

Lineage. Sargon began to reign in Assyria in the same month in which Shalmaneser V died. This would seem to indicate that there was no doubt or difficulty about the succession. Yet it is clear that he was not the son of Shalmaneser, or apparently any relative of his predecessor. Indeed, he never alludes in any of his known inscriptions to his ancestors. It is therefore, with justice, believed that he was not of royal origin at all. In the reign of his grandson Esarhaddon a genealogical table was made out, by which Sargon's ancestry was traced back to Bel-bani, an early ruler in Assyria. This was evidently only an attempt to gain the honor of noble lineage. Whatever his origin-- and it was probably humble, since nothing is said of it-- Sargon seems to have been accepted as king without question. He may, therefore, have been adopted by Shalmaneser and designated as his successor.

Exploits. Sargon was one of the greatest soldiers ever produced in Assyria, and his coming upon the scene was at the very time when he was sorely needed by a weakened empire. The reign of Shalmaneser had been brief. His death left the state in confusion. Babylonia was overrun by the Chaldeans and under the leadership of Merodach-baladan was in open revolt. There was a siege in progress at Samaria at the end of Shalmaneser's reign, and the king of Egypt was threatening and ill-tempered. The northern boundary of Assyria was dangerously beset by the tribes of Armenia, and northern Syria again had to be reduced to subjection. With a weak man upon the throne of Assyria, all would have been lost that Tiglath-pileser III had gained and perhaps the empire's very existence would have been in jeopardy. The occasion was great, and Sargon was equal to it.

The first event in the reign of Sargon, according to his own inscription, was the fall of Samaria. He speaks of it in these words: “The city Samaria I besieged, and twenty-seven thousand two hundred and ninety people, inhabitants of it, I took away captive. Fifty chariots in it I seized, but the rest I allowed to retain their possessions. I appointed my governor over them, and the tribute of the late king I imposed upon them.” We do not know whether Sargon was actually present at Samaria or not. The city may have been taken by one of his generals, though he says that he took it. We know from other clear instances that the Assyrian kings were not careful to distinguish their own from the successes of their generals in the field. Whether he or his representative was the real conqueror, Sargon was proud of the achievement. In his Cylinder Inscription he calls himself “subjugator of the broad land of Beth-Omri,” and again elsewhere “the conqueror of the city of Samaria and the whole land of Beth-Omri.” In his treatment of Israel Sargon followed the plans first matured by Tiglath- pileser; he “carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor,

-1- Nahum: Supplemental Notes 1 Klaus G. Schiessel © 2000 on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes” {2 Kings 17:6}. To fill the place thus vacated he brought men from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sephar-vaim, placing them in the cities of Samaria instead of Israel {2 Kings 17:24}. This colonization as begun by Tiglath-pileser and extended by Sargon was handed on from people to people till it found its fullest extension in the Roman Empire.

In 711 difficulties again attracted Sargon's attention in Syria. Azuri, king of Ashdod, thought that the time was ripe for refusing to pay the Assyrians tribute. Sargon hastily dispatched a Tartan against him , who removed Azuri from the throne and put in his place his brother Achimit, who was an Assyrian sympathizer. The people of Ashdod would not endure a man of such sentiments and deposed him by force. Suddenly Sargon appeared, took Ashdod and Gath, which had joined in the rebellion, carried away the chief inhabitants to Assyria, and filled their places with colonists from the E. This ended the troubles for the present, and Sargon could now turn his attention to Babylonia. The state of this land might well cause alarm. The whole country was in open revolt, under the leadership of Merodach-baladan, who had formed also a confederacy with Elam (see Merodach- baladan). Sargon realized that this would be a severe struggle. His plans were carefully laid. He attacked the confederate forces separately, won victories, and soon was in possession of Babylon. In 709 he was again acknowledged as king in Babylon, and the rebellion that had begun with the beginning of his reign was over. The years 709-707 were brilliant indeed. Tribute was sent to him from the island of Dilmun in the Persian Gulf and from Cyprus in the far-away Mediterranean. He was at the zenith of his power, and many lands did him homage.

Last Years. For the last few years of his reign we have no Assyrian documents. Only brief hints show that his armies were engaged till the very last in subduing insurrections here and there over his vast empire. It was indeed impossible that peoples so widely separated and so diverse in all their thoughts and emotions should be speedily welded into a unified and symmetrical empire. Conquests might be made quickly; concourse of feeling must be of slow growth. Sargon died in 705. The broken fragments of the Eponym list seem to say that he was murdered, but they are too badly mutilated to make us perfectly sure. So ended the career of the greatest conqueror who ever ruled in Assyria. He was not so great a pacificator as was Esarhaddon, neither were his works of peace so magnificent as those of Ashurbanipal, but in war he surpassed all who preceded or followed him upon that throne.

Royal City. But he was not only a warrior; he has left at least one magnificent evidence of his skill in the arts of peace. When he began his reign the Assyrian capital was Calah. He determined to erect a new city and place within it a palace that should surpass in magnificence all that had preceded it. The site selected was at the foot of Mt. Musri, N of Nineveh. The city built there he named after himself, Dur-Sharrukin (Sargonsburg), or Khorsabad, and the palace within its square of walls was the first Assyrian ruin explored by moderns. It was first excavated in the years 1842-45 by Botta and was surprising for its magnificence even in ruins. The ruins were further excavated by Victor Place (1851-55) and by Edward Chiera and Henri Frankfort for the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (1929-35). Sargon also began the collection of thousands of cuneiform tablets continued by his great grandson Ashurbanipal. These were recovered in the famous library at Nineveh. But

Bibliography:

(1) H. W. F. Saggs, Iraq 17 (1955): 146-49; H. Tadmor, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 12 (1958): 20-40, 77-100. (2) W. W. Hallo, Biblical Archaeologist 23 (1960): 50-56. (3) D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia (1968), 2:1-114. (4) J. B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts (1969), pp. 119, 165, 265-68, 272, 284, 287, 579, 647. (5) J. P. Lewis, Historical Backgrounds of Bible History (1971), pp. 39-43, 56, 74, 94, 107, 176-77.